WORDS: Campbell Rouselle PICS: Geoff Osborne

HONDA’S LITTLE PEARLA

Well it’s been a quiet year for me as far
as Kiwi Rider goes. An incredibly busy
semester at fi lm school left me with no
spare time to swing a leg over any test
bikes or even stick my head in the door
of the West Auckland HQ.
Until a week in the middle of
September that is. With some free time
on my hands I popped over ‘for a coffee’
(Campbell-speak for ‘have you got any
bikes for me to ride? Ed).
As it turned out the Ed did

FOLLOW ME!
“It’s a new Honda,” he said as I
followed him to the lock-up. “I love it. I
think you will too.”
And indeed I did. In fact it would be
fair to say I ‘liked’ it at fi rst sight!
You might have seen one already.
It’s a cruiser, one Honda’s called the
Shadow Spirit.
It’s a low-slung beast, looking lean
and purposeful. And closer inspection
quickly reveals that famous build quality
we’ve come to expect from Honda.
Instrumentation includes an easy to read
analogue speedo with two trip meters
built into the tank, cruiser style.
Thumbing the starter releases an
evocative exhaust note that’s loud
enough to raise a smile, but won’t
wake your neighbours. There’s no need
to adjust the choke as that’s all taken
care of via good old fuel injection. The
sitting position enables you to get both
feet fi rmly on the ground (even would
if you were a Hobbit), the bar/seat/peg
relationship is excellent and all controls
fall easily to hand (or foot).

GET OUT ON THE HIGHWAY
Pulling out of Kiwi Rider’s driveway
things continued to look promising,
the motor pulls smoothly and there is
positively zero driveline snatch, due to
the shaft drive. At cruising speeds, it’s
comfortable, turns sweetly and pulls up
comfortably.
As speeds increase and on a winding
road it’s good fun without breaking
any speed limits. With its relatively
torquey bottom end, light fl ickable feel
and easy to use brakes things stay
relatively composed and without any
wind protection you quickly feel like
you’re fl ying along - the only potential fl y
in the ointment being an ultimate lack of
ground clearance and soft underdamped
suspension that can have the bike
bouncing around a fair bit over bumps.
In stark contrast to some cruisers
I’ve ridden, Honda has also got the
Shadow Spirit’s brakes well sorted,
with a single disc up front and a drum at
the rear, giving good easily modulated
deceleration. Even when hustling along
at pace this set up works adequately.

GOOD VFM
Overall, as the Ed expected, I really
enjoyed my ride on the Shadow Spirit.
It’s easy to use, sounds great, has
fantastic fi t and fi nish, and at $12,995
is cheap as chips especially when you
consider the build quality plus shaft,
rather than chain or belt, fi nal drive.
It’d be a great bike for beginners
stepping up from a 250 or someone
wanting a bike with presence, without
buying a big heavy fi re-breathing
monster.
In short, this Shadow really does
have spirit.

KR